In his first fiction feature, with irreverent humour and an unflinching subjective voice, director Philippe Lacôte refracts the fraught and blood-drenched history of the Ivory Coast through the story of a young man’s 20-year journey from country boy to political militant to assassin.

A young man dressed in rags walks with determination down a church aisle with a gun in his hand, his eyes fixed on the orator behind the podium. He stops, aims, and fires. Havoc breaks out. Melting into the panicked crowd, the young man goes on the run. He has just shot the Prime Minister of Ivory Coast.

Evocative of a picaresque fable, and featuring a vividly realized cast of larger than life characters (including the remarkable Isaach De Bankolé as a veteran dissident who mentors the militant), Run boldly heralds a new generation of African cinema: irreverent, and fearlessly defiant.